High-tech jobs growing in Hawaii

A trade group report being released today ranks Hawaii among the top five states in the nation in growth of technology jobs.

With 6.3 percent growth in tech-industry jobs between 2005 and 2006, Hawaii ranked fourth nationwide, according to AeA's 11th annual edition of its Cyberstates report.

New Mexico topped the list, followed by South Carolina and Utah. Nevada came in behind Hawaii, with a 4.9 percent rate of tech employment growth.

Hawaii also ranked in the top five states with the fastest growth rate in tech wages since 2001. North Dakota topped the list, with a 24 percent jump, followed by Rhode Island (15.7 percent), Kansas (15.5 percent), and Hawaii, with a 11.7 percent jump. Iowa rounded out the top-five list with a high-tech wage growth rate of 11.1 percent.

High-tech wages in every state continued to exceed private sector wages significantly.

Tech workers in California, for instance, in 2006 earned an average $101,200, versus $47,800 for the state's overall private sector workforce. The average wage for a high-tech job in Hawaii in 2006 was at $68,363 compared to $35,908 in the private sector.

Though job prospects look good in the state's high-tech sector, it still constitutes a small percentage of the state economy.

Hawaii ranked No. 46 in high-tech employment and No. 26 in high-tech average wages. A total of 30 out of every 1,000 employees in the private sector in Hawaii are employed by high-tech firms.

Between 2001 and 2006, Hawaii added 1,100 jobs, with most of the growth in the latter three years. In 2006, there were a total of 14,902 high-tech jobs and 1,387 high-tech establishments with a total payroll of $1 billion.

Hawaii, however, ranks near the bottom when it comes to research & development per capita (at No. 38) and venture capital investments (No.45).

AeA, a high-tech trade association which has headquarters in both Santa Clara, Calif., and Washington D.C., tracks the high-tech industry in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.